With a new tank, it should be easy to replace the anode with a different type. It depends on how much vertical room you have what configuration you need. They make replacement ones with a segmented body so you don't need as much room above.

Yeah, but every one I've replaced has been a B*tch to get out. If you know someone with a torque-amplifier wrench attachment (BIG bucks), plan on borrowing it. Otherwise, you might get by with a LONG breaker bar (leave the WH filled so it won't dance around), or an impact wrench (last resort, IMHO).

If you Google "smell anode rod water heater" you'll get over 4,000 hits of advice.

Yeah, but every one I've replaced has been a B*tch to get out. If you know someone with a torque-amplifier wrench attachment (BIG bucks), plan on borrowing it. Otherwise, you might get by with a LONG breaker bar (leave the WH filled so it won't dance around), or an impact wrench (last resort, IMHO).

I did mine gently with a long breaker bar, and I would not be at all inclined toward shocking a water heater with impacts from a powered wrench. However, you might find that replacing the anode will *not* stop the odor as well as would getting your heater's internal temperature above 140* F. Along with keeping my "whole house" filters fresh, that is what I ended up having to do.

I did mine gently with a long breaker bar, and I would not be at all inclined toward shocking a water heater with impacts from a powered wrench.

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You have a very common misconception about Impact Wrenches shocking things. Many years ago I was trying to loosen a nut holding a pully on a shaft. There was an allen socket at the end of the shaft and I wasted a lot of time with an allen wrench in it trying with a wrench to loosen the nut. Cheater bars and the whole bit. I finally went to my brother in law who was an auto mechanic for help. He told me to hold onto the 5" pulley with my bare hands while he put an impact wrench to that nut! I asked him WTF are you crazy and was told shut up and do it! He then spun that nut off in 2 seconds and I didn't feel a thing. Impact wrenches shock the nut not what its in or, on.

I stand by my post that Impact wrenches are the tool of choice for removing a anode rod!

Good link to smelly-water advice. I'll have to think about the impact-wrench a bit, though. I have this (bad) vision of the glass lining breaking into a jillion pieces and falling into the bottom of the tank...

If that were completely true, you would never have had to hold that alternator's pulley and I would never have ever twisted and broken a rusted lug bolt while trying to remove a stuck nut. Impact is impact (with or without continued torque), and the water heater will feel at least a little of the impact from a power wrench even if the nut above the anode rod actually does let loose before glass breaks!

This is a NEW WH, so hopefully, corrosion shouldn't be a problem. If it is many years down the line, all bets are off. Still, I suppose, it could be a pain getting it loose, but it shouldn't be that bad.

Yea, I'm sure... Thats why on one my cordless zings it right out and on the next it grunts for 45 seconds before it even starts to move,,, They use the same calibrated torque limiting impact gun the joker down at Bleep Bleep tire store used when he trashed the lugs on my work van! 85 ft. lbs (+- 80)